NGC4527

While nearly all my images are oriented north up. This galaxy looked "upside down" to me so I'm breaking my rule and displaying this field with south at the top.

NGC 4527 is a somewhat flocculent spiral galaxy in Virgo. Redshift puts it at a distance of about 96 million light-years but this is likely distorted by high velocity on the outskirts of the Virgo Cluster. Many different non-redshift measurements put it at about 45 million light-years. APOD and others say 50 million light-years. The latter gives it a size of 93,000 light-years which seems reasonable. The larger distance gives a rather unacceptable to me, size of 178,000 light-years while the NED non-redshift distance gives the smallest size of 84,000 light-years. Flip a three-sided coin on this one.

The galaxy was discovered by William Herschel on February 23, 1784. It is in the original Herschel 400 observing program. My notes from April 23, 1985, under moonlight with my 10" f/5 at 50x reads: "Large, oval galaxy of even brightness but otherwise featureless. In the same low power field with much more interesting NGC 4536." While I've taken 4536 and the two are separated by about half a degree my field is only about 11 minutes from center to top or bottom so there's no overlap between the two making it impossible to mosaic the two. My image of 4536 is at http://www.spacebanter.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=5363&d=1414649090 .

It is classified by NED as Sab(s)bc; HII LINER. New research on LINER galaxies indicates many may be LIERs rather than LINERs. It was thought they were powered black holes nearing starvation so greatly reducing the ionization they could create throughout the galaxy. The N standing for Nuclear when it was thought the radiation came from there. Now it appears many are powered by a scattering of white dwarfs through the disk rather than an active nucleus. See http://www.sdss.org/releases/proof-that-some-galaxies-are-liers/ for more on this. (Edit: Many of the texts with images at this site mistakenly use the wrong idea about LINER galaxies being caused by an active black hole. Now it is shown this may be very wrong and white dwarfs are the cause. Keep that in mind when encountering LINER galaxies)

Also over these years, I've had galaxies in my image classified with (f) such as Sb(f). I couldn't find what this meant so asked a few pros I do photometric work for on AGN's. They didn't know for sure. One suggested it meant they had an overabundance of F stars and I used that in a couple of my annotations. Finally one got back to me with the right explanation. Or at least a right explanation. It can mean the galaxy is seen virtually edge on (not that it is flat enough to make any of the flat galaxy catalogs). One such galaxy appears in this image to the right of NGC 4527 and is in the 2 micron flat galaxy catalog. Now I have to figure out which of my text files has this written up incorrectly and verify that those are seen edge on. (Edit: if a reader finds which have this error please let me know so I can fix them.) Here's the link I was sent: http://arxiv.org/pdf/astro-ph/0509294.pdf

This image contains an unusual number of objects listed as UvES. These, NED considers as quasar candidates due to their large redshift and color shift as recorded in the color filters of the Sloan survey. Since no actual spectroscopic redshift has been determined the identification as a quasar is subject to change. Only those NED listed as being quasar candidates are shown in my annotated image.

There were several asteroids in the image that I'd normally be able to show but only one does appear and then only barely. This is again due to my lousy sky conditions of late limiting my ability to go deep. You may notice a break in the trail. This is because my system shut down for a while to wait for better skies then started in again 20 minutes later creating this gap. I'm beginning to wonder if normal transparency will ever return. Didn't help that on about the only really transparent night last May an aurora gave me a sky brighter than I get within 45 degrees of a full moon! Then, forest fire smoke from nearby and distant fires made imaging impossible. One of those was only 15 miles away thanks to our super dry spring. Seems I can't win.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=2x10, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for NGC4527

NGC4535

NGC 4535 is a Herschel 400 object and also a rather nice galaxy being a face on grand design barred spiral in Virgo and a member of the Virgo Cluster. William Herschel found it on the night of December 28, 1785. It is classed as SAB(s)c and has a LINER active core (Edit: Or so it was thought when I wrote this but it may be due to white dwarfs instead.) and HII emission. I'd hoped to pick the many HII regions up but seeing was bad as it was most of this spring. That limited me to seeing a very few of the largest regions with most lost to the seeing. While redshift puts it at over 100 million light-years away this is an illusion. Analysis by the Hubble space telescope as well as many Tully Fisher distance estimates place it at about half that distance, 52 million light-years. This would put it in the Virgo Cluster.

The northern arm of the galaxy is rather strange with that suddenly bright, very straight, east-west section. That could have qualified it under Arp's heavy arm classification. Except for that, it is a rather normal appearing but low surface brightness spiral.

The galaxy has been called "The Lost Galaxy". Some sources incorrectly identify "The Lost Galaxy" as the much brighter and easier to see NGC 4526 only a half degree south, out of my field of view. (Edit: And not yet taken as this is written.) It too is a Herschel 400 galaxy so on my to-do list for another year. Even The Sky I use to point my telescope sent me to NGC 4526 when I entered "Lost Galaxy". NGC 4535 was named "The Lost Galaxy back in the Mid 50's in a Sky and Telescope article. It got the name because it is very faint when viewed in a typical 1950's backyard telescope. They topped out at about 6" back then. I tried to find it and couldn't from town in my 6" f/12. Even my entry (with a thin 4 day crescent moon) for the Herschel 400 back on April 23, 1985 using a 10" f/5 at 100 power to cut down moonlight reads: "Large, very faint galaxy with much mottling. Virtually circular with a hint of an oval shape." I wasn't seeing the spiral arms, just hints of their brighter parts. This agrees well the Dreyer's description: "pretty faint, very large, mottled but not resolved". The galaxy was discovered by William Herschel on December 28, 1785. He was working late that night it would appear. You can read about the "The Lost Galaxy" issue at www.cloudynights.com/topic/276454-what-is-the-lost-galaxy/ . Steve Gottlieb is a major contributor to the NGC Project and a contributing editor to Sky and Telescope magazine. It is the first reply to the post asking about the name.

At the assumed 52 million light-year distance NGC 4535 is about 113,000 light-years across. Nothing else in the image appears to be in the Virgo Cluster.

One candidate quasar is in the upper left. Sloan image shows a bright core with a hint of a blue disk about it indicating it is a galaxy with a very bright core. Apparently, it is still uncertain if it rises to quasar level. In my poor seeing, it shows a slightly larger FWHM than the stars around it but I see no hint of that disk seen in the Sloan image.

Conditions, as usual, were poor. There's one 18th magnitude asteroid in the lower right. One of this magnitude normally easily colors the black sky beyond the luminance trail, Not this night. Also, note how it fades away showing the first couple luminance frames had better transparency than the last two. In fact, it faded away in the last frame. I had to wait several hours to get the color data. I should have put that off for another night entirely. Though I'd have gotten little done this spring doing that.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=2x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for NGC4535

NGC4536

NGC 4536 is an interesting barred spiral in Virgo just above the celestial equator. It is thought to be a bit under 50 million light-years distant though its redshift puts it at twice that distance. It is classified as SAB(rs)bc with HII emission and a starburst core. It was discovered by William Herschel on January 24, 1784 and is in the original Herschel 400 list which I'm slowly working on. My entry from April 23, 1985 with my 10" f/5 with a 4 day moon under fair conditions at 50x reads, " Large oval galaxy with huge curving outer arms. Fainter than NGC 4527 in the same field but far more interesting."

It has a very odd, very dark and red dust lane near the core like a miniature black eye galaxy. Several papers say it doesn't have a central bulge but does have a pseudo-bulge. Assuming the generally accepted distance of 48 million light-years it is about 110,000 light-years across. Just how do you explain this crazy dust lane? I found nothing on it.

To its north is NGC 4533. It is a near edge on SAd: spiral with a similar redshift to NGC 4536. Is it really only half that distance or is it really at its redshift distance and thus not at all related to NGC 4536. I found nothing to answer this question. If the redshift is right it is about 68,000 light-years in size. If it is the same distance as NGC 4536 it is half that size or 34,000 light-years. I'm not going to hazard a guess on this one. It was discovered by Ernst Wilhelm Leberecht Tempel using an 11" refractor in 1877. He is credited with finding 150 NGC galaxies and, of course, the comet Tempel 1 that Pete Schultz's impactor punched a crater into on July 4, 2005.

There are quite a few galaxies in the field that have redshifts that put them about 1 billion light-years distant. They are likely members of the Abell 1564 galaxy cluster. It's center is about 7 minutes below the bottom of my image and is listed as 30 minutes in diameter. Its distance is listed at 1.05 billion light-years. A very good match to the galaxies I'm speaking of. They all fall within the 15 minute radius of the cluster.

There are also several at 1.81 billion light-years including a tight group of 4 just off the southeast edge of NGC 4536 and a pair to the southwest with a lone galaxy above the pair. To their west is a (N)arrow (E)mission (L)ine (G)alaxy at 1.9 billion light-years by redshift. It may also be part of this group. Others at about 1.8 billion light-years are around NGC 4336. However, I found no mention of any cluster fitting that distance.

One faint asteroid is in the image as well as some quasar candidates (UvES) with only photographic distance determinations.

Conditions were poor for this image seeing was well below normal for the luminance frames and got really bad during the red frames. The FWHM of the red frames was more than twice that of green and blue. I stopped and took the green and blue the following night. I should have redone the red. It made for a processing nightmare that I only sort of compensated for. Why I didn't redo the red and the luminance I don't know. Apparently, I didn't think it as bad as it was.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=2x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for NGC4536

NGC4559

NGC 4559 is a very low surface brightness blue galaxy. You may see the trend here. I'd planned on imaging a bunch of these guys this winter but most have been lost due to the lousy weather all year. Being of low surface brightness they aren't good targets for nights with moonlight. This galaxy is in the constellation of Coma Berenices and isn't far from the Virgo Cluster. Though it appears this galaxy is not a member of this huge group of galaxies. Its distance is hard to determine. Based on a supernova seen in 1941 it would be about 20 to 30 million light-years away. Its redshift distance is about 50 million light-years based on NED data though I've seen NASA claim its redshift says it is only 35 million light-years away. They don't give their source, however. If 50 million is right then it could be a member of the Virgo Cluster after all. And you thought we knew our nearby neighborhood better than that.

Some papers claim the blue color is due to a collision of the outer halo of this galaxy with a dwarf galaxy that has triggered massive star formation. Some even claim the dwarf galaxy is NGC 4559C (IC 1350). Seligman doesn't agree saying IC 1350 is a very different galaxy nor does he give any identification of the blob. This is the tiny blue blob seen in a faint outer arm on the right side of the galaxy. Most images of this galaxy don't go as deep as my shot and this blob is indeed separate from the galaxy in those shots. But to me, this looks like just another star knot. in an outer arm and not a separate galaxy at all. I can't find any redshift data on it. Again, It just shows how little we know about even nearby galaxies. The brightest galaxy besides 4559 in the image is NGC 4559A (IC 3592) at the lower left. It isn't related at all showing a redshift distance of about 340 million light years. There are a bunch of HII regions in this galaxy but they are all smaller than 3" of arc. My seeing on this image was 3.2" so no way I can show them. Using an H-alpha filter should bring them out. That will have to wait for another year. When I was processing this image I saw a funny dark arc (almost like a smile) below the nucleus. I was sure there was a problem with my flats and some dust had gotten in between the time I took the flats and I took the object. But I found it in observatory shots so it is real. It doesn't flow with the rest of the arms in ordinary light but does seem to fit in the ultraviolet image though is much broader in ultraviolet light.

Due to all the massive young stars, this galaxy emits a lot of ultraviolet light and is well seen by Galex. But its X-ray spectrum is inconsistent with what would be expected from the ultraviolet spectrum. Again, showing the universe still has a lot to teach us. You can see an ultraviolet photo of it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:NGC_4559_I_FUV_g2006.jpg taken by the Galex satellite. Notice how NGC 4559C also appears to be in that faint arm in that light as well. But in ordinary red light of the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey Plates, it appears totally detached from the galaxy. Note this image was taken with the 48" Schmidt telescope on Mt. Palomar but using film technology. Thus I can see far fainter parts of the galaxy using electronic detectors than a much larger scope can see using film. The exposure time is similar as well as the image scale. http://stdatu.stsci.edu/cgi-bin/dss_search?v=poss2ukstu_red&r=12+35+57.65&d=%2B27+57+36.0&e=J2000&h=15.0&w=15.0&f=gif&c=none&fov=NONE&v3=

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10'x2 RGB=3x10x3, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for NGC4559

NGC4565

FGC 1471 is an edge on spiral galaxy in Coma Berenices. NED says it SA(s)b? with two cores separated by 0.8" one Sy3 the other Sy1.9. As I rather like flat galaxies like those in the FGC I'm working on imaging the more photogenic ones in the catalog. This is likely the best of the catalog so a good place to start. You probably know it by its more common names, NGC 4565 or the Needle Galaxy. NGC Project says Sb I. While red shift puts it at 70 million light-years a closer distance seems more likely as that would move it beyond the Virgo Cluster and require it to be enormous. NED has measurements ranging from 30 to 72, averaging about 42. APOD says 30 million light-years in several references to it. Its angular size argues for the smaller figure. I measure it at 16.5 minutes of arc from end to end. That would be 144,000 light-years, assuming the 30 million light-year distance making it considerably larger than our galaxy or the Andromeda Galaxy.

I'd not noticed before that its disk is warped at the ends. This though might be related to the second active region 0.8" from the galaxy core. If this is a merger situation that could have created the warp. At some wavelengths, the second active region is brighter than the core itself. This too could be due to it traveling though the galaxy in a merger situation though other explanations are possible as well. NGC 4562 appears to have an off-center core so the warping could be due to an interaction between the two in the past.

While exceedingly flat with little visible halo its rotation curve is nearly flat indicating a lot of unseen mass, dark matter probably.

NGC 4565 was discovered by William Herschel on April 6, 1785. Of course, it is in the original H400 program. My entry from April 23, 1985 on a fair night with a moon with the 10" f/5 at 150x reads, "Large edge-on galaxy with a very prominent dust lane and central bulge. Seems to be nearly as wide as the field of view. One of the few galaxies that looks like its picture. This one is a winner for a change." Somehow I was seeing the bulge as larger in comparison to the disk which means I likely wasn't seeing the full extent of the disk.

Two other galaxies share about the same redshift as NGC 4565. They are likely gravitationally bound to it as satellites or at least members of its group. I'll assume, they too, are much closer than their redshift would indicate at about the same distance as NGC 4565. NGC 4562 was discovered by Wilhelm Temple sometime in 1882. I couldn't find an exact date. It is typed as SBbc?. IC 3571 a smudge of an irregular galaxy was found by Max Wolf on a photograph he took on March 23, 1903. That's a pretty faint smudge for the film and telescopes of that day. I couldn't find the original image on the net.

I took a lot more data on this one but when I went to process it had horrid reflections I couldn't remove. What caused them is a mystery to me. This left me with only one sixth the color data and one third the luminance. All taken when lower in the sky with poorer seeing. I'll have to try yet again on this one. So far, since going digital, something has thwarted all attempts. This was the only one with usable color data and that is so thin it is very noisy. Somehow with all that against me, the image turned out far better than I expected. I doubt I could improve it much other than lowering the noise some. Note too it uses only 70 total minutes of data.

The WHL J123614.7+255457 galaxy cluster at 5.8 billion light-years by photographic redshift measurements is southwest of the galaxy. It has 11 members. The BCG for the cluster has no redshift data but is only one second of arc from the cluster's position so I used one label with a question mark for the galaxies distance. It appears many of the 11 members are also faintly visible in the area. Two other catalogs list this same cluster but without any galaxy count and with distances of about the same as those already mentioned. I didn't label them as things could get crowded with no real useful added data. To the southeast of this group is another, GMBCG J189.25931+25.84396 with 13 members at a distance of 3.5 billion light-years. In this case, the redshift-distance of the cluster and galaxy agree. But while the positions given for each are within a second of arc of each other the cluster has an error circle of 30 seconds of arc while the galaxy has one of 0.5" which matches my position for the BCG I've labeled.

Near the east edge of the image is another obvious galaxy cluster. No individual member has a redshift listed in NED. The cluster itself is NSCS J123523+255636 and has a redshift putting it about 3.4 billion light-years distant. I've drawn a line to the approximate center of the cluster. The error circle is 15" of arc so the position is the best I can do.

For such a studied region I found many of the position measurements surprisingly vague. Usually, NED has an error circle of 0.5" of arc but here the error circle was much larger. For the quasar, at 10.5 million light-years it was 37.5 seconds though with the help of the Sloan survey I was able to find it within about 13 seconds of the given location. Then there's the little cluster of galaxies off the southeast end of the galaxy. It has two designations with the same location but an error circle of 15" of arc. The position of the BCG was better at 1.5 seconds of arc. Still three times greater than what I'm used to. All had the same given position and were within <1" of my position so why the large uncertainty I don't know. But the differences continue. WHL J123647.1+255131 is listed as having 14 members at a redshift distance of 2.25 billion light-years while MaxBCG J189.19641+25.85862 at the same position is said to have 24 members at a distance of 2.35 billion light-years. The BCG, however, is listed at 2.20 billion light-years. As all are photographically determined the difference doesn't surprise me but the galaxy count difference does. Could be due to the larger count going out further from the center but why don't they specify that distance? Very frustrating to me. I could see it in a rather obscure part of the sky but this is a very highly studied region. NGC 4565 is listed by NED in 35 catalogs. 3 radio, 5 IR, 21 visual and 6 X-ray.

For the large number of faint fuzzies in the image, very few have any redshift data making for a surprisingly sparse annotated image. Apparently, all study the big ape in the room and ignore nearly everything else.

There is one lone asteroid in the image; (123365) 2000 WU31 at an estimated magnitude of 18.7.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=1x10'x3, STL=11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for NGC4565

NGC4567

The pair of galaxies at the bottom of the image are NGC 4567 (top) and NGC 4568 (bottom). The other galaxy is NGC 4564. The pair is known as the Siamese twins and also known as the butterfly galaxies it is about 60 million miles away and part of the Virgo galaxy cluster. They are named the Siamese Twins because they appear to be connected. Though the lack of major tidal distortion indicates this is more an alignment artifact than they are really colliding. The strong dust lane that separates them would indicate they are close to each other, however. How far they are apart really is as yet unknown.

(Edit: This was a very early image from 2007 when I wrote little about them. I need to research this image as I do more modern ones. For now, I'll just add that that the twins were discovered by William Herschel on March 15, 1784. I was surprised that neither are in either of the H400 programs. NGC 4564 was discovered by Herschel the same night as the twins. It didn't make either program either. Either seeing was poor this night or my technique back then was poor. The image needs to be taken again. Seligman says NGC The pair of galaxies at the bottom of the image are NGC 4567 (top) and NGC 4568 (bottom). The other galaxy is NGC 4564. The pair is known as the Siamese twins and also known as the butterfly galaxies it is about 60 million miles away and part of the Virgo galaxy cluster. They are named the Siamese Twins because they appear to be connected. Though the lack of major tidal distortion indicates this is more an alignment artifact than they are really colliding. The strong dust lane that separates them would indicate they are close to each other, however. How far they are apart really is as yet unknown.

(Edit: This was a very early image from 2007 when I wrote little about them. I need to research this image as I do more modern ones. For now, I'll just add that that the twins were discovered by William Herschel on March 15, 1784. I was surprised that neither are in either of the H400 programs. NGC 4564 was discovered by Herschel the same night as the twins. Seligman says NGC 4567 and NGC 4567 are SA(rs)bc galaxies/. He classifies NGC 4564 as E6???. It didn't make either program either. Seeing was poor this night (April 22, 2007) or my technique back then was poor. The image needs to be taken again.)

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=1x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for NGC4567

NGC4571

NGC 4571 is a face on low surface brightness galaxy in the Virgo Cluster a half degree southeast of M91. Thus, while a member of the Virgo Cluster it is located in southern Coma Berenices. It has low contrast blue arms on a mostly featureless reddish disk with a small rather bright core. One paper says it has an arm structure similar to M101. I really pushed the contrast and color saturation to bring out these very low contrast arms. Its distance is only 31 million light-years by redshift which is undoubtedly too close. Virgo Cluster galaxies have rather high velocities that make redshift an unreliable distance indicator. Tully-Fisher measurements show a distance of about 50 million light-years which is much more reasonable but likely still too close. I'm finding most current sources are saying about 60 million light-years for its distance which is pretty much the accepted distance to the Virgo cluster itself. Using 60 million light-years for its distance I get a size of 72,000 light-years. It was discovered by William Herschel on 4571. John Herschel thought it might be M91 which led to years of confusion before NGC 4548 was settled on as Messier's M91. On November 23, 1900, Arnold Schwassmann came across the galaxy. For reasons I haven't been able to discover Dreyer treated it as a new object giving it the designation IC 3588. Was the confusion over M91 to blame? I can't find the answer but tend to doubt it.

To the northeast is Malin 1 and Malin 1B. A note at NED says: "This galaxy (Malin 1B) has previously been given a stellar classification owing to its round shape. The high resolution of WFPC2, however, enabled us to view the galaxy's faint disk and thereby determine its true nature as a galaxy." In my data, it doesn't have a PSF of a star though is close. Still, even by eye, I didn't think it a star so find this note rather puzzling. That brings up Malin 1 itself which is listed as being a GLSBG which stands for Giant Low Surface Brightness Galaxy. Its core certainly isn't unusually faint but its disk is in relation to the core. I measure it at about 100,000 light-years in size. I'm not sure how that makes it a giant. Maybe I'm not seeing its full extent though I do see the same size as the SDSS image. Turns out neither I nor SLOAN is seeing it's true size. See http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2016/02/04/malin_1_is_the_biggest_spiral_galaxy_known.html for the story and a very deep image.

Another puzzle is PGC 042178 to the northeast. It is blue shifted so I list its distance as n/a. It is classified as dE4,N which is a dwarf elliptical with a nucleus. It does have a blue starlike object west of its center. Looking at its PSF in my data it is a star. Sloan image also makes it appear to be a star. If it is a foreground star then where's the nucleus? Another blue shifted dwarf elliptical, PGC 042193 is seen near the eastern edge of my image. It has no nucleus though is a bit brighter if you ignore the star-like object in the former galaxy. Are they related, are they in the Virgo Cluster? I found no answers.

An amateur processed image of NGC 4571 in pseudo color by the HST in green and near IR light can be seen at https://www.flickr.com/photos/77452188@N05/7176855420/

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=2x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for NGC4571

NGC4605

NGC 4605 is considered a member of the M81 group though it resides about 18.25 degrees east of M81 above the handle of the Big Dipper. It is a SBc dwarf spiral galaxy about 28,000 light-years across and 16 million light-years distant, somewhat further than M81. I'm afraid I can't see much hint of spiral structure other than it being a disk galaxy and no hint of a bar or even a core. I'm assuming the star like object at its center is just a field star in our galaxy. Though it's position is less than one second of arc different than that NED has for the galaxies center. I couldn't find anything to decide this issue. Visual observations speak of a star within a half degree of its center that's 13th magnitude. It was discovered by William Herschel on March 19, 1790 and is in the second Herschel 400 observing list. It's surface is strangely two tone either bright or dim with little variation, especially of the brighter star clouds. No matter how I processed it it came out this rather bi-toned galaxy. I assume this is due to the very poor conditions the night I took the data. I should have tried on a better night but this is late May and I can only get one per night so didn't want to waste the night on the chance I might get better data.

For a lot more on this galaxy plus a great HST image, south up, of it see: http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1418a/
http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/hubble-eyes-a-scale-of-the-universe/#.VIdff8l8qM1

There's an obvious, likely background, galaxy just above the southeast end of NGC 4605. Strangely it is listed only as the IR source 2MASXi J1240129+613609. There's no indication it is a galaxy but the positions match. It isn't listed by NED as being in the Sloan data. I've seen this with blue galaxies but this is a rather red one and they have always been seen, until now that is.

NED shows a quasar candidate near one edge that I've marked in the annotated image that lies far beyond the galaxy if the photometric redshift is correct. in fact the image contains a record number of quasars and candidate quasars, most identified as UvES, some by CQ (candidate quasar rather than calling any amateur radio operator), in the annotated image. 19 of them if I counted correctly. One of them is a puzzle. Toward the upper left is the galaxy CGCG 293-033 and to its lower left is a double object, a blue galaxy on the east and a blue starlike point on the west. NED identifies the starlike point as a star giving its distance as 9.52 billion light-years. Yet also says it is a candidate quasar. Then it identifies the galaxy as a verified quasar yet nearly all catalogs say it is a galaxy. It certainly looks like a galaxy both in my image and the much clearer Sloan image of this pair of objects. So that's how I have identified it in the annotated image.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=2x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for NGC4605

NGC4631

ARP 281/NGC 4631-4627 is the first of 6 entries under his category for infall and attraction. The two NGC galaxies that make up Arp 281 are in the process of merging and are gravitationally bound. Nearby NGC 4656 is also gravitationally bound to this system and likely interacted with it hundreds of million years ago by most accounts. The system is likely about 25 million light-years distant though I found no good consensus on its distance. Redshift, unreliable this close, says 40 million light-years. Tip of the red branch estimates at NED show a distance of about 25 million light-years while Tully fisher measurements show a closer distance of about 16 million light-years. Some papers say 30 million. Non redshift measurements of NGC 4627 gives a distance of 30 million light-years compared to 19 million for all for NGC 4631. Balancing these and others I decided on 25 million light-years which gives a size of NGC 4631 of about 116,0000 light-years. Some sources say it is a starburst galaxy but NED didn't note this in its classification. Still it seems quite likely after its interaction with two other NGC galaxies. NGC 4627 is 17,000 light-years in size including its plumes using the same distance.

The pair was discovered by William Herschel on March 20, 1787. NGC 4631 is in the original Herschel 400 observing program. My comments using a 12.5" f/6 scope at up to 150x on an excellent night in the New Mexico on April 27, 1984 desert reads: "WOW! edge on with many faint knots but no dust lane, Round companion appears larger than in photos but maybe I'm not seeing the full length with NGC 4631. In same low power field with NGC 4656." Arp's comment: "Knots resolved with 48-inch. Diffuse counter tail on companion."

NGC 4631 is often called the Whale Galaxy though I've also heard it called the submarine galaxy. The annotated image lists all galaxies that NED had redshift data on.

Arp's image: http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp281.jpeg

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=2x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for NGC4631

NGC4633

NGC 4633 is a strange disk galaxy possibly interacting with NGC 4634. The pair are located in southern Coma Berenices. Their distance is difficult to determine. By redshift, both are about 28 million light-years distant. Only NGC 4633 has a non-redshift measurement that comes in at 69 million light-years. Quite a difference. If they are interacting then NGC 4634 could also be about 69 million light-years distant. While I can't find an HST image of NGC 4633 there is one for NGC 4634. https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1238a/ The text puts it at "about 70 million light-years". The pair are members of the Virgo Cluster though are on the outskirts of it as most spirals are. Radial velocities of Virgo Cluster members vary drastically with some even blue shifted indicating high orbital velocities are common in the cluster. Thus it isn't unusual that redshift gives erroneous values. Using 69 million light-years I get a size for NGC 4633 of 50,000 light-years and 71,000 for NGC 4634.

Both appear distorted by their interaction. NGC 4633 is classified at NED as SAB(s)dm: while Seligman says SBd?. The NGC Project leaves off the question mark. I classify it as "A Mess" though that isn't a valid classification. Still, it describes it better to my eye. Likely it was a much better organized barred spiral before it had a run-in with NGC 4634. Seen edge-on NGC 4634 seems to be a somewhat ordinary edge on galaxy within an oddly unsymmetric halo. In some ways, it resembles the Hamberger Galaxy, NGC 3628. Though its dust lane is also far from symmetric extending beyond the disk and into the halo to the northwest and breaking up and disappearing before reaching the southeast end of the inner galaxy. The HST image doesn't go deep enough to show much of the halo, unfortunately. Also, its color filters result in a somewhat false-color image missing the reddish hues that extend into the halo. Most halos are filled with new hot stars so tend to be blue but this one had a lot of cooler stars in it for some reason. Note I did push color on these two galaxies more than usual to bring out this oddity.

NGC 4633 was discovered by Edward Swift on April 27, 1887 and entered into the NGC catalog. Later on November 23, 1900, it was discovered by Arnold Schwassmann. Due to apparently different coordinates and Dryer not realizing it was a duplicate was entered into the IC catalog as IC 3688. NGC 4634 was discovered by William Herschel on January 14, 1787 but is not in either of the H400 observing programs. A Sloan image of this pair can be found at: http://skyservice.pha.jhu.edu/DR9/ImgCutout/getjpeg.aspx?ra=190.668663&dec=14.2988&scale=0.8&width=800&height=800&opt=&query=

NED shows a 20.1 magnitude quasar seen through NEG 4634. I point to its location though it is lost in the glare of the galaxy in my image. I can't even find it in the HST image linked to above. There are three asteroid trails in the image. One ran right over the 20.2 magnitude galaxy, SDSS J124212.15+142124.3. NED has no distance data for it. Just east of NGC 4634 is a pair of galaxies that have the same redshift so may be interacting. The red one, PGC 042739 is shown at NED as being BCD?. BCD normally stands for Blue Compact Dwarf. But given its color and distance is neither blue nor a dwarf. At least they added a question mark. It may be it got this designation before redshift was measured. Still, it is obviously quite red compared to its blue companion which should have been quite evident since the mid 50's when the first POSS survey was done in blue and red light. If there's another meaning for BCD I have never heard of it. https://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Sept02/Palco_BCD/Agpaz3.html

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=2x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for NGC4633